Lucretia Del Valle

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Name: Lucretia Del Valle

Age: 33

Race: Human

Class: Warlock; Felsworn

Profession: Alchemist

History: The Death of a Good Reputation 

Descended from a long line of mages, Marius Del Valle was eager to uphold his family’s reputation as a group of talented intellectuals within the province of Hillsbrad. He was driven by raw passion and his dedication was matched by ability. But, as he grew in age and experience, his family attempted to withhold the arts from him. They noticed small signs that he derived sadistic pleasure from the pains of others, and spoke amongst themselves about him. They said that Marius seemed all too willing to tolerate and humor the corruptive nature of the arcane. They could not have been more right.

After countless attempts at halting the potentially corruptive studies of their son through conversation and persuasion, Marius’s parents took a harsher approach. Horrified by the tomes of shadow magic they found within his quarters, his parents burnt the books after holding a brief council with the rest of the Del Valle family. They came to the unanimous decision that Marius would be required to take his leave. When confronted, Marius did not react with the ferocious temper the Del Valles had grown to expect from him. He simply retaliated by claiming that he had found a peace which they would never have the privilege to touch. There was no battle, no promise for revenge; Marius Del Valle simply turned on his foot and left at the young age of 23.

He arrived some years later in the city of Stormwind and, although no news of his exile had reached the city, he was recognized and revered due to his surname. He soon gained a position as a high-ranking mage in the Stormwind guard. Surprisingly, he managed to hold this position for over 10 years. He was praised by the King for his loyalty and most tilted a deaf ear to the thieves and seemingly deranged beggars that claimed Marius had used curses against them. To all, Marius presented a charming façade. Still, his egotistic nature was evident. As he selfishly pressed his way through the ranks of the guards, he gained enemies among them.

One night in a local tavern, tensions came to a point when Marius scolded a higher-ranking officer for ‘going too light’ on an intoxicated civilian. The officer threw the first punch, but no one expected Marius to react the way he did. He instantly resorted to the most painful magic he knew of and cursed the man, bringing the officer to his knees before bringing his knife down upon the spine. Witnesses claim that Marius disappeared afterwards through the use of illusion magic, others say he was responsible for a string of particularly gruesome murders that spanned through the next three months; the truth is unclear.

The previously majestic reputation of the Del Valle family had been soiled. Maddened by his addiction to the arcane, Marius tortured the unfortunate weak ones who he stumbled across in his travels. He wandered from the city and resided in Westfall for sometime. It was there that he came across a Priestess named Eleanor, who was more than 20 years his minor. Having focused on alchemy but experimented with some shadow magic herself, the girl was intrigued. Marius convinced her to leave her home, no doubt using his manipulative charm to his advantage, and the girl blindly followed him. The two established a home in Duskwood and he trained her in the arts of shadow while he himself delved deeper into the manipulation of fel energies.

The Rise of a New Generation

The new branch of the Del Valle family quickly grew and the shabby cabin was expanded to house a total of nine children. With the aid of a trusty messenger, Marius had regained contact with his Aunt from Hillsbrad who, despite her initial hesitation, joined what was quickly beginning to resemble a family coven. He had named his third born, his first daughter, in this woman’s honor. It was his Aunt who had introduced him to the art of curses.

The girl, Lucretia, was treated harsher than the others due to this. The expectations for her were great, but she proved to be stubborn and harder to teach than the others. To escape the havoc and violence that constantly raged within the Del Valle house (that was usually directed at her), she wandered off for extended periods of time and explored the woods. It was there that she stumbled across an old Priest by the name of Jerome Walker. In search of solitude and deep thought, he had become a hermit. He spoke to her of far away places, of history, and of wars long passed.

After weeks of stories and thought-provoking conversation, the young girl spoke her last name and the man looked upon her in astonishment. He implored her to remain with him, and warned her that the family had delved into dark magic. He had been born in Hillsbrad and had traveled to Stormwind sometime afterward, much the way her father had. He had heard the rumors. He told her of her family’s history, and it was far different than the glorified version that her father told.

Jerome insisted that she would be safer elsewhere in both body and spirit, but she would not listen, even when he offered to train her in magic that was quite opposite of that of her family. Lucretia explained to the man that, maddened or not as he claimed, her father was her father. She felt as if she had an obligation to stay.

Still, Lucretia always refused to participate in the training with her siblings, and would not cast fel magics. She insisted that there were better ways to accomplish one’s goals. Tired with the constant struggle and astonished that the girl would not agree to practice fel even after she was whipped, the young Lucretia and her guardians reached the compromise that Lucretia would train in solely shadow magic and under the instruction of her mother.

As time progressed and Lucretia continued in her studies, she became increasingly aware of her surroundings and the past words of the hermit continued to ring within her ears. She noted the corruptive properties of both magics, but came to know that fel was far more potent. Although she viewed many of her father’s actions and punishments as excessively cruel, she could not help but revere him as the head of their family and therefore harbor some sort of love for him. She observed him closely, watching as he used his magic and noticing how it gained strength after he drank from the dark red liquid within the vials at his belt.

Gradually, Lucretia guided her lessons with her mother in the direction of alchemy. She led her three guardians to believe that she was researching fel-based poisons. Through much of the day, Lucretia locked herself within her room. She studied the reactions and sought out a way to stifle the fel energy through the use of potions. She kept her true hopes and purposes a secret.

She watched her father closer than ever as she noticed his condition deteriorating. His bouts of rage grew more extreme, his lust for power greater, he was a terror in the house in her eyes, and went as far to strike down his youngest daughter, who was six at the time. The rest of the family either did not notice, or did not care, but Lucretia was disturbed by his behavior. She grew to see the magic as not only an addiction, but a disease. She devoted herself to her pursuits of alchemy, determined to find some sort of medicinal antidote to the poison of corruption.

She watched him as he became engrossed in his addiction, and followed as he ventured into the basement each night to practice his spells and drain the blood of his demons. For years she observed him at night, then worked in her room during the day, accumulating very little sleep. Finally, Lucretia was convinced that she found a cure and was determined to test it.

In the early hours of morning, when thin rays of light were just beginning to leak through the curtains, she snuck into her father’s room. Just as she was about to empty the contents of the potion into her father’s mouth, he grabbed her wrist. Due to his seamlessly stoic expression, Lucretia questioned if he was asleep. She stood motionless, urging him to fall back into a deeper slumber, but her father took no action of the sort. Instead, he withdrew a filled syringe from his bedside table and, claiming that he would ‘fix her’, drove the needle in beneath her skin and injected the substance. Alarmed, she jerked her arm away and stumbled towards the door as the room became filled with her father’s maddened cackling.

As she entered the narrowed hallway, her vision became distorted. The shadows seemed independent of the light, as if they had a mind of their own, and everything appeared dark and twisted. She felt the fel energy rage within her, begging to be released and pushing at the seams of her body and mind. Feeling that she had no other choice, Lucretia fled the house, taking only the clothes on her body and the small satchel on her arm. She settled beneath the shelter of a jagged rock ledge on one of the hills.

The next few days were spent in agony. She was cognizant of an unbearable pain in every muscle. Her body writhed under the effect of the fel blood and she did not sleep, only thrashed. She managed to clutch to her sanity through the use of a loosely bound journal. This log, which she had previously used to document her progression in alchemy, was now used to carefully analyze the symptoms of a new corruption that she recognized within her.

Although she tried to resist, the initial injection of fel blood was too potent. She sought out the blood of demons, finding it when she summoned one of her own, which was a spell she’d been taught, but had never practiced. The demon seemed all too willing to grant her what she sought.

She traveled to the nearby refuge of the hermit, seeking his advice, as he had been the closest one she ever had to a friend. When he turned his head to look upon her, his expression became crestfallen. He expressed his disappointment in her, but pitied her for what he said would be ‘a struggle of a life’. Finding no comfort in his words, Lucretia took her leave after their brief conversation.

She continued to monitor each symptom of her addiction, both physical and mental manifestations, and recorded all in her journal. She struggled under the constant influence of fel blood, and the hissing words of the imp that now took pleasure in the sight of her struggle. But she became more dedicated than ever in her studies of alchemy, even though the imp attempted to thwart her progress at every step.

Brief Personality Description: Despite the evidence to the counterpoint, Lucretia still believes that she is uncorrupted. To an extent, this is true. Most of the recesses of her mind have been preserved in a stubborn breed of sanity. She is aware of every step she takes in the direction of corruption and, by maintaining this awareness, is able to retain her previous mind-set. She views herself as a victim of circumstance, and a martyr to her own work.

Growing up, Lucretia retained a certain emotional distance from her family, even her closest sisters. Because she was sheltered and only exposed to few people, to this day, she finds it extremely difficult to be able to speak with people in everyday conversations. For some reason, her social awkwardness often resembles naivety to others.

If nothing else, she has inherited her father’s steadfast determination. Once she has put her mind to a task she considers worthy, she will not stop until that task is completed. This great amount of willpower is evident in her every action. She holds little self doubt, and performs actions only after much thought of its consequence. If she believes her actions to be manipulated by her addictions, she will not hesitate to draw out an analytic framework of the situation within her journal. But she is not completely resistant to her corruption, the influence of fel and the pesky imp can cause her to give into her instincts, which are developing to become increasingly demonic in nature.